Washington State Offers Voter Registration on Facebook

Partnering with the social media site and Microsoft, the state has created an application that it hopes will boost voter registration.

Getting voters to take the time to register is often difficult, especially when it comes to younger voters. Looking for ways to reverse that trend the state of Washington has partnered with Facebook to allow voter registration on the social media giant's website. According to the Christian Science Monitor the application that will be used was developed by Microsoft. It is designed to pull a screen from the state's registration website into a user's Facebook page and use the person's profile information to populate large portions of the registration form. Since Washington law requires identification users will have to input their driver's license or state ID card number to complete the process. Once they have done so they are given the option to "like" the registration page and share it with friends. The application will be the first of its kind and is expected to launch soon.

A bill to bring online voter registration to Texas is dead thanks to a small but vocal group of officials from the state's largest county, according to the measure's sponsor, state Rep. Celia Israel. But Israel, whose legislation had the backing of a majority of the Texas House, says she's not giving up.
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